If an electron beam is directed at a work piece, in particular a metallic work piece, the electron beam introduces energy into the material in a very concentrated manner, whereby the latter is melted. Material may also vaporize in the process, creating in the material a depression that has small transversal dimensions and reaches all the deeper into material the longer the latter has been irradiated by the electron beam at the location concerned.
The effectiveness of the drilling can be increased by the molten metal being driven out of the material by a gas which the electron beam generates from an underlay that is arranged behind the work piece.
The present invention aims to provide such a method.